Everything begins with a basic distinction that there are two kinds of data.
Some data like numbers, words, characters that have no immediate use and therefore no value.
Other data like phone numbers, email addresses that do have an immediate use
and therefore do have value.
So data exists in two states: raw data and data as information.
Data Privatisation takes information (data with value) and breaks it back down into raw data (data with no value) and then stores it that way.
The real issue is not “data theft” itself, but the value inside the data. Remove the value and you remove the motive for theft.
Current security systems copy the physical world — locks, keys, barriers — even though the problem is digital. Data Privatisation is a digital solution to a digital problem, free from the weaknesses of physical-world thinking.
But its real strength is not what it prevents. It is what it enables: a new foundation for rebuilding information safely.
This also exposes a flaw in how we use the word “data”. Traditionally defined as “a single piece of information”, the word becomes meaningless once we recognise that data can be either valuable or valueless depending on context. The word alone tells us nothing.
The Benefits of Data Privatisation
The first benefit is the protection of personal data — from login details to entire life histories.
Data Privatisation also reveals a second useful distinction: public vs private data.
Public data is visible (hair colour, eye colour).
Private data is not (phone numbers, bank details).
Data Privatisation allows personal data to be held as a private record, not a public one. A private record appears only as raw data, not information.
Today, all records are effectively public, which is why we fear misuse.
Accepting private records unlocks major advantages. It enables Privacy Providers — organisations that store your data in its privatised form.
You then issue tokens that release only the specific information a third-party needs.
This leads to practical tools such as:
- Identity cards linking biometrics to a reference code
- Debit cards with numbers only, no names
These improve personal security and support national security.
Privatised data has no direct value, so it can be shared freely. Questions can be asked while answers remain hidden.
This enables National Databases that benefit everyone without compromising privacy.
A National Medical Database, for example, could support research without exposing identities. Statistics rely on numbers, not names.
It also allows national data to generate revenue, just like taxation.
At present, we hand this value to major tech companies.
If information only exists when reassembled, then possession is not ownership — and consent cannot justify the destruction of privacy for profit.
Data Privatisation gives us the chance to reclaim national data for national benefit.
Data Privatisation is not something to debate with the tech department — it is something to instruct them to implement.
Its first major benefit is that it renders GDPR unnecessary.
Data itself does not need protection; information does.
Data Privatisation ensures information is never stored as information.
Eventually, businesses will only protect their own data.
All other data will be supplied on demand via tokens and never stored by anyone except the individual it belongs to.
The focus shifts to connection data — the links that turn raw data into information.
You may own a token, but not the data it unlocks.
Businesses will also be able to buy access to national and local databases tailored to their needs.
Tech often struggles with Data Privatisation because it still treats digital security as a physical problem. The ongoing failure of current security proves this approach is inadequate.
Computing originally made data processing faster and easier — for everyone, including criminals.
Data Privatisation reverses this by making things harder again — for everyone, including criminals.
Early computers lacked the resources to do this. Now they don’t.
Once the software exists, the computer does the work. The ongoing cost is minimal.
This is the shift Tech must grasp:
With Data Privatisation, data theft does not need to be managed — it simply stops being a problem.
Digital problems require digital solutions. Tech may operate in the physical world, but its logic is not bound by it.
We return to the beginning, when computers first made data processing faster and easier. For decades, progress was limited by memory and processing power.
Data Privatisation deliberately makes things harder again — for good and bad actors alike.
In doing so, it exposes solutions to problems created by modern tech.
It also creates a new starting point and new opportunities.
It opens the door to new industries and start-ups.
One of the most important ideas it introduces is that data can be tax revenue.
The real value of Data Privatisation is not what it prevents, but what it enables.
But none of this matters until the idea becomes reality.
And in today’s world, ideas alone are not enough.
The question is simple: who will take the risk of being first?
That question explains why Data Privatisation remains an idea rather than a reality.